The University of Mississippi Medical Center recognizes that many of the therapeutic advances in the treatment of cancer and related diseases is a result of collaborative efforts. This institution can best utilize its resources and offer patients the opportunity to receive superior treatment by utilizing its capabilities cooperatively through full participation in the Southwest Oncology Group. To extend participation in the Group and expand our collaborative efforts, we are active participants in the Cooperative Group Outreach Program (CGOP) and plan to participate in forthcoming cancer control research and prevention studies. Patients studied are adults with hematologic malignancies or solid tumors with blacks representing approximately 53% of the cancer cases at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. A multidisciplinary approach to the management of patients is employed by a team of medical oncologists, hematologists, radiation oncologists,, surgeons and surgical subspecialties, geneticists, and immunologists and pathologists. Data managers and nurse oncologists are actively involved in identifying patients for participation and monitoring patients placed on studies. The primary objective in this institution's participation in the Southwest Oncology Group is the collaborative development of studies which will ultimately increase the cure rate of patients with cancer and related diseases and the provision of these treatment programs to all who can benefit from them. A by-product of this research is improved education for students, housestaff and primary physicians as well as a synergetic meshing of ideas for the management of cancer and related diseases. Institutional investigators actively participate in disease, discipline, standing and administrative committees of the Group. Groupwide leadership is demonstrated by this institution's chairing of the Data Managers Committee, participation in disease committee working groups, and the Board of Governors. The institution continues to serve as the depot pharmacy for a major intergroup study conducted for prostate cancer.